20 Truths: Aburame
by kinokokichigai
Summary: Twenty truths about the Aburame Clan.


_20 Truths: Aburame_

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1. While being one of the most quiet, the Aburame are the most powerful and the most long-living. They were there before the first Hokage, before the Uchiha, before the Hyuuga, and even the Akimichi. The Aburame don't care that they're hated, because of this private knowledge.

2. The Hyuuga and Aburame don't get along well, because the Hyuuga were terrified of bugs for two reasons: they were insanely hard to see, even with the Byakugan. That, and they were really creepy. The 1st head of the Hyuuga never slept very well after meeting the Aburame, and banned any family of his to consort with the Aburame. Needless to say, Hiashi isn't very happy about Hinata's team placement.

This is one thing that Hinata doesn't care about.

3. Like most other clans, the Aburame has had a traitor. However, they have only had one person leave, instead of the few that try to escape to another ninja village to get shelter from the Main Hyuuga House. And no one's gone insane and killed the whole Aburame Clan, like Itachi did with the Uchiha (not to say that there haven't been a few close calls). Even the Akimichi have had a couple of defects…but that's not for now.

4. Shino doesn't know it, but he's the most advanced Aburame to ever live, and only the second smartest. His father knows it, though, and is quietly proud of his son. He never tells Shino, though. Many things go without words in this family.

5. The reason for the sunglasses and the baggy coats? No, not for carrying items—that's what vests are for. The sunglasses aren't for hiding eyes, either, because the Aburame are infamously stoic, and generally couldn't show much emotion to save their life. No, it's because the first Aburame thought it looked _cool,_ and made his children wear it, and he convinced his descendants that it was the epitome of style.

6. The First Hokage had an Aburame as his poisonmaster and close confidante. So now, when the Godaime comes across some old documents, she swiftly calls Aburame Shibi to her office and asks him if he knows of this.

His slow, tiny smirk startles her. "I wondered when we would be asked, Hokage-sama."

7. Ino hates bugs. So when she asked Shino to go out with her, she was half-relieved when he refused. Shibi was entertained by that.

8. The only Aburame that was smarter than Shino was his cousin, and she was the traitor to their clan. No one knows where she is now, but she will eventually end up killing a third of Konoha. It is to be the greatest blow to the Aburame in memory.

However, bugs can survive the fallout, so why not this?

9. The Second Hokage put the Aburame in charge of designing the city of Konoha, because they had been there the longest and knew the land best. This is why, if you jump up high enough, the clusters of houses and shops and other buildings look like a honeycomb pattern.

Shino, Hinata, and Kiba see this while practicing a new jutsu, and when Kiba cracks a joke about the resemblance between the town layout and Shino's house, Shino's brows furrow and wonders why he did not know of this part of the clan's history.

10. Only the current Aburame leader knows all of the clan's secrets, which are passed down by special bugs holding the precious memory of all previous leaders inside their tiny exoskeletons.

Shibi has been breaking the Code stated by all previous leaders, and has been quietly giving his son the memories at night, so he can make better judgment. Also, Shibi doesn't feel he has too much time left on this earth.

11. The Aburame are famously quiet and stony. It's the bugs that do this, because even Shino was once a giggling boy who bounced off the walls of the Aburame Home. Now, if you look at older Aburame, it's as if they have a flesh-colored exoskeleton.

It even creeps Shino out a tiny bit, and he promises himself he'll stay human, even if he is (technically) a walking Raid target.

12. Shino can't sting people with his ass, no matter _how_ much he tried when he was younger. Other Aburame can, though.

13. Most Aburame marriages are arranged when the child is born, but there are those lucky few who actually fall in love, and are allowed to leave the contract. Shibi wasn't one of them, but Shino will be.

14. No Aburame has really ever bathed, in the technical sense of the word. Shibi has a memory of an ancestor of his dying horribly, the bugs bursting out of his body as he submerged in water. But no other ninja knows this, and anyone who did…

Well, what's gone is gone, right?

15. Kurenai was a genin in the same year as the traitor Aburame, and when her teammates died, the Aburame tried to kill Sarutobi, then escaped the village.

Kurenai always had thought the Aburame were a bit odd, and when Shino joins her team, she is a bit wary. Thankfully, she grew to like Shino.

16. When it comes to surprises in the moonlit night, the Aburame succeed without even trying. Don't ever, _ever_ go trick-or-treating at the Aburame's, because what humor that they have is twisted at best. The Akimichi, who live close to them, are always having to comfort teenage children who just saw things they can't describe.

Chouza always takes the last of the candies (and a few bags of chips, of course) over to the Aburame, because he figures that if they have enough time to set up something as weird as that, then they couldn't have had any Halloween treats. He's right, actually, and always asks if Shino is eating well.

Whoever opens the door each year thanks them stiffly, and replies that yes, he is, and how is Chouji? It's an odd tradition that came from when the Akimichi first met the Aburame, and even it's become diluted from a great feast after a time-consuming mission, the current leaders don't care.

17. When Naruto becomes Hokage, he will immediately appoint Aburame Shino as poisonmaster, keeping the Second's tradition. Shino will also have a tiny smirk when he hears of this.

And Naruto will know that this is not the fake smile that he saw on that fearsome mission years ago, and it scares him a little.

18. Some Aburame don't have actual bones. Instead, they take bugs that die in them and compress them until they become as hard as diamond. Tsunade hadn't known this until Shibi landed in the hospital with some ripped tendons that his kikai couldn't repair. Of course, seeing shiny black bones when she was sewing up the tendons didn't help her concentration much either.

19. When Shibi says that Shino is the most advanced Aburame, it means that he is the most humanly advanced. Shino can feel emotions better than almost all of the previous Aburame, and can understand what people are feeling, more so than your average Aburame.

20. Just in case you were wondering, yes, the Aburame do have a bug collection---it's better than anyone else's, and they don't have to pin the needles to Styrofoam. It's because the whole world is their insect collection.

And this story goes to solderini, for making me think about the Aburame. The "Can you sting people with your ass?" line comes from him/her/it. Also, if you can place where I got most of the words from in the first sentences of number 16, then you get a Shino/Hinata fic. It won't be a one-shot, either.


End file.
